BenQ has announced two new monitors that will incorporate NVIDIA's G-Sync technology. The 24-inch XL2420G and 27-inch XL2720G will both be available in Q1 2014. Both monitors have 144 Hz refresh rates and will support three display modes: G-Sync, Low Motion Blur, and 3D Vision. In addition to G-Sync technology, the monitors support ResolutionEyes technology which is a set of features designed to make prolonged gaming sessions easier on the eyes.

BenQ's 27-inch G-Sync gaming monitor.

According to NVIDIA, the 24-inch and 27-inch BenQ monitors will sport a 1920x1080 resolution on an uspecificed panel time. Unfortunately, BenQ has not revealed whether it is using TN, IPS, or some other panel technology nor what the response time is beyond stating that it is "ultra fast" (which may imply a TN panel...). We do know that the monitors are hieght adjustable.

Both G-Sync capable monitors will be available in Q1 2014 at not-yet-released prices. It is promising to see other monitor manufacturers supporting G-Sync out of the box.

We've seen a few reviews of Max Payne 3 go by, focusing on performance and the effects various graphical options have on the look and feel of the game, but so far little has been said about its 3D mode. For those who have the gear it is possible to add more artificial depth to Max's character and as it happens Hi Tech Legion had the display, glasses and the NVIDIA Beta 304.48, which would be the needed checklist for enabling 3D. They were quite impressed with the implementation and had no issues apart from a bit of blurry text. If you have the desire and the equipment you can examine a few of their screen captures here, otherwise you shall have to content yourself with reading the review.

"Max Payne 3 is the latest chapter in the 3rd person shooter title which debuted over 11 years ago for the PC. Max Payne is now living thousands of miles away from the grit and grim of New York and working in private security detail for a power Brazilian family in Sao Paolo. It is not all sunshine, beaches, and babes in bikinis for Max however, as he finds himself in the middle of a sprawling conspiracy involving all manner of Brazilian scum from the crevices of the Favela, the swampland militias as well as the ivory tower of ambitious politicians who would stop at nothing to add a few more zeroes to their paycheck. Max Payne 3 for the PC boasts detailed DirectX11 graphics and resurrects the "bullet time" gameplay everyone enjoyed in the original title that debuted over a decade ago now."

The AOC d2357Ph has a nice array of inputs, D-Sub, DVI-D/HDMI, Composite, Component S-Video and Display Port are all present which will allow you to use this on almost any system. On the other hand as it is a passive 3D monitor and not a 120Hz display, which R&B Mods refers to as 'poor man's 3D' and while it does offer 3D it is not as impressive as active solutions. 2D picture quality was quite good, with a minimum of backbleed and the screen is physically quite thin which could be an advantage for some users. Check out the full review for more information.

"3D is the latest trend and today we are looking at a 3D screen from AOC; who is also one of our new sponsors. AOC’s d2357Ph is an incredibly thin monitor with LED backlighting, a Full HD resolution and the ability to display passive 3D images. What kind of 3D quality can we expect from it? Stay tuned and we will figure it out."

You don't have 3D Vision 2? Loser.

In conjunction with GeForce LAN 6 current taking place on the USS Hornet in Alameda, NVIDIA is announcing an upgrade to the lineup of 3D Vision technologies. Originally released back in January of 2009, 3D Vision was one of the company's grander attempts to change the way PC gamers, well, game. Unfortunately for NVIDIA and the gaming community, running a 3D Vision setup required a new, much more expensive display as well as some glasses that originally ran $199.

While many people, including myself, were enamored with 3D technology when we first got our hands on it, the novelty kind of wore off and I found myself quickly back on the standard panels for gaming. The reasons were difficult to discern at first but it definitely came down to some key points:

Cost

Panel resolution

Panel size

Image quality

The cost was obvious - having to pay nearly double for a 3D Vision capable display just didn't jive for most PC gamers and then the need to have to purchase $200 glasses made it even less likely that you would plop down the credit card. Initial 3D Vision ready displays, while also being hard to find, were limited to a resolution of 1680x1050 and were only available in 22-in form factors. Obviously if you were interested in 3D technology you were likely a discerning gamer and running at lower resolutions would be less than ideal.

The new glasses - less nerdy?

Yes, 24-in and 1080p panels did come in 2010 but by then much of the hype surrounding 3D Vision had worn off. To top it all off, even if you did adopt a 3D Vision kit of your own you realized that the brightness of the display was basically halved when operating in 3D mode - with one shutter of your glasses covered at any given time, you only receive half the total output from the screen leaving the image quality kind of drab and washed out.